Moving On
by Saani
Summary: Set after Dark Victory. Brainy has recently left the Legion and is trying to settle into a normal life as Querl. Pity the universe isn't willing to make it easy for him.
1. Taralei and Tam

_Disclaimer: Taralei, Tam and Petro are of my own creation, however the Legion of Superheroes and anything related to it are not. _

* * *

**Chapter One - Taralei and Tam  
**

At the sound of his doorbell ringing the green-skinned boy sighed. He ran a hand through his messy blonde hair and stood up to answer the door. Pretending to ignore the odd look he received, no doubt due to his disgruntled appearance, Querl paid the delivery man, took the pizza, and shut the door in the man's face. He wandered back into the main room of his small apartment and threw the pizza box on the coffee table. Sighing once more he then sat down on the couch with the television remote, all set for another night of nothing but slightly burned pizza and terrible sitcoms.

After a few minutes, Querl turned the television off and stared at the ceiling. This was pathetic! He had only left the Legion a mere two weeks ago, and he was already terribly lonely and depressed. He wished more than anything that he could just go back, but he couldn't, not after -

"What do you mean you can't remember?"

"Exactly what I said _pinehead_, I can't remember!"

Just as Querl was beginning to replay the whole incident in his head for the fourth time that day, the sound of two voices arguing loudly outside his door distracted him. Grumbling, Querl got up and opened the door again, intending to tell the owners of the voices off.

Standing just outside the apartment across from Querl's were two boys that looked about his age. They were both tall, with tanned skin and shaggy green hair, but while the elder was thin and lanky, much like Querl himself, the younger was of a more athletic build. Their eyes were also different; one had muddy brown eyes, the other a brilliant shade of green. Suitcases were scattered on the floor around them and they appeared to be arguing over something. At least that's what Querl assumed; they were trading insults more than actually debating over a particular topic.

Querl was about to intervene, all the while cursing internally that _he_ had to end up with these people as neighbours, when movement at the end of the hallway caught his eye. It was a girl, most likely the two arguing idiots' sister, if her tanned skin and green hair was anything to go by. Her wavy hair was long and pulled back into a ponytail, and she had glowing gold eyes. She was about Querl's height, rather petite and dressed in the latest fashion, her over sized metal boots the only exception. She was also struggling to haul a massive suitcase off of the teleporter.

Figuring her brothers weren't likely to help her, Querl went to do so himself, "Excuse me, would you like some assistance?"

At the sound of his voice the girl's head shot up, obviously surprised, but she quickly relaxed and turned to him with a small smile, "That would be great."

Upon seeing her face, Querl froze. A feeling he couldn't explain, and certainly hadn't experienced before, shot straight through him. This girl, there was something about her, but he wasn't sure what.

"Um, that would be great? Uh, are you okay?"

Shaking his head, Querl snapped back to reality, "Oh, yes, sorry. I was distracted by an odd- uh, never mind." He quickly grabbed the suitcase's handle and glanced at the still arguing brothers, "I'll carry this for you, and perhaps you could do something about the noise?"

The girl smiled again, "I'll try."

As she stomped down the hall towards the two boys, Querl followed slowly with the heavy suitcase, still trying to shake off the odd feeling.

"What are you two arguing over now?"

"Pet forgot the door code." The younger brother whined.

"You can't remember it either, _little shrub_." The elder grumbled.

The girl sighed and stomped over to the door, punching the code in and stepping aside as the door opened. "_Show-off,_" both boys grumbled as they began to drag their bags inside.

Querl shook his head again and went to head back into his apartment when the girl turned to him. "Sorry about the noise. I'd say it won't happen again, but with these idiots around, you never know." She said with an apologetic smile.

"Hey!" One of the boys' voices called from inside the apartment.

Querl half-smiled back; "They're your brothers I assume?"

"Unfortunately."

"Aw Tara, not cool," The younger brother joined them at the door, "Don't make us sound bad to the new neighbour!"

"You already achieved that on your own." Querl mumbled.

"What?"

"Oh nothing. I'm Querl, it's, uh, nice to meet you."

The boy shook his offered hand, "Querl huh? That's weird."

"I am, uh, not really from around here."

"Neither are we, we're from Flora." Tara added.

_That explains the green hair and different __coloured eyes._ Querl thought.

Flora was a planet over in the next solar system, named after the huge amounts of plants covering almost every inch of it. Its inhabitants were well known for their different shades of green and brown hair, as well as their abilities to either control plants or heal. It was easy to tell which ability a Florian had just by looking at their eyes. Green eyes indicated a plant-manipulator, while gold eyes, such as Tara's, were the sign of a healer. Brown meant the person was either unable or chose not to use their abilities.

"Pity you brought half the planet with you," The green-eyed boy quipped, waving his hand at the bag Querl had dragged to the door, "It used to be so pretty."

"Oh shut up, I didn't have that much luggage." His sister complained.

"Uh, you had to get the weird green kid to help you."

"Whatever."

Grinning victoriously, the boy turned to Querl; "The name's Tam and this is Taralei."

"It's, uh, nice to meet you." Querl said once more.

Still grinning, Tam began to push his sister inside. "Pet said if you don't start dinner soon, he will and we all know how that will end."

Both siblings shuddered.

"Yeah, okay. Bye Querl." Taralei called out as she was once again pushed inside.

"Bye Querl." Tam echoed, shutting the door behind him.

Querl stood there blinking for a moment, wondering what had just happened. Shaking his head, he returned to his apartment and, now cold, pizza.

* * *

Later the next day Tam was sitting at the kitchen table surrounded by suitcases and boxes as Taralei cooked pancakes in their new kitchen. They were discussing what they were going to do later that afternoon; well Tam was making suggestions and Taralei was turning them all down. He had suggested trying out the new potato launchers he and Petro had bought, but Taralei refused. He had suggested filling the study with water and swimming in it, but Taralei had refused. He had suggested taking his pet plant Frenzy out for a walk, but Taralei had refused. He swore that girl had no sense of adventure.

Just as he was about to suggest they be boring and go hang out at this new arcade, there was a loud bang from outside. Taralei instantly span around, spatula at the ready, "What did you break this time?"

Purely out of habit, Tam began to wrack his brain for an excuse until... "Hey wait, I didn't do anything, that came from outside!"

Both twins rushed outside, Tam tripping over a chair in the process, only to find smoke slipping out of the apartment across from theirs and alarms beginning to go off.

"Holy grife!"

The twins burst through the door and found the green kid from the day before smacking at a flaming stove with a damp tea towel. The rest of his kitchen didn't look much better. Tam was amazed: "Hey Tara, he's done more damage than I did the time I accidentally smashed half the fridge!"

"You mean the 'spider-on-the-door' incident, or your 'does-the-light-really-turn-off' experiment?"

Tam thought for a moment, "I dunno, both?"

"You're an idiot, you know that right?"

"Yeah I know. If I'd used a piranha plant, I'd have smashed the _whole_ fridge. Oh and maybe gotten that stupid spider too..."

Tam's rambling was cut short as he was smacked over the head by his sister and yelled at to find water. He wished she'd stop doing that; one day it was going to really hurt. Turning to see her caressing a bruised hand, he found today was in fact that day. But before he could even open his mouth to say 'I told you so', she aimed her very best death glare at him and he ran in fear towards the green kid's bathroom.

As he opened the door, the green-haired boy began to search for something he could carry water in. "Let's see…sponge? Nah, too small. And pink. Shampoo bottle? It's full of shampoo. Seriously, who keeps a completely full bottle of shampoo? Uh…tiny toothbrush-holding cup? This kid is so weird!"

Tam continued digging through Querl's bathroom cabinet, but couldn't find anything useful. "Okay, think Tammy, _think_. There's gotta be some other way to get the water to the kitchen."

That's when it dawned on him. It was a crazy plan, that would most likely get him yelled at again later, but it would probably work. Closing his eyes, the young Florian mentally searched for the nearest plant life he could find and willed it to grow and shoot towards him.

Massive roots shot out of a pot plant a few feet away from his sister and the green kid, scaring the pansies out of both of them, and smashed through the wall into the bathroom. Whoops. Oh well, maneuvering them through the door would have wasted time anyway.

Tam then aimed the roots at the sink, causing them to wrap around it and smash it into a million pieces. "Ah, should have used smaller roots." He mumbled.

Once the dust had cleared, Tam quickly searched the wreckage. He knew exactly what he was looking for; he'd seen it once before when he tried to melt the shower in his old apartment with a flame-spitting shrub. Needless to say, Petro and Taralei had not been impressed. Maybe if he'd used a piranha plant instead…

_Bingo! _Tam had found what he was after.

Tam stepped out of the bathroom holding in his hand a part of the sink. Water spilled out of it, not unlike a hose. The Florian then aimed his make-shift hose at the fire and began to soak the flames (and the rest of the apartment), all the while thinking about what a genius he was. Oh and piranha plants. Let's not forget piranha plants. 

_

* * *

_

Four hours later found Querl lying in bed awake. He was used to restless nights, but it was usually guilt or homesickness that kept him up. Tonight however, he had other things to think about; like his culinary failure. It irritated him to no end that he had been unable to remember something as simple as a stir fry recipe (_'Note to self, human memories are far too small; buy a recipe book.')_, and that he'd needed assistance from his insane neighbours. Honestly, Tam had managed four, long, disturbing stories regarding objects he had destroyed before Querl finally convinced (read: forced) him to leave. Taralei was almost as bad. She had healed the same burn on his arm not once, not even twice, but seven times before she deemed it okay for him to be left alone, and even then, she made him promise to keep an icepack on it for a few hours! At least he'd learned he'd been correct in assuming she was a healer.

Speaking of Taralei, Querl was also mulling over that strange feeling he'd experienced when he first saw her. He had never experienced anything quite like it and was having trouble putting a name to the sensation. He figured it was some form of human emotion that his robot brain had been unable to recreate, and therefore he was unused to it. He decided the next time he met a sane person he'd ask them about it.

However, the last and most irritating thing that was bothering Querl, couldn't be solved by a cook book or sane person. In fact, he wasn't sure anyone could solve it, which made it all the more annoying. How on earth had Tam managed to soak only the roof above Querl's bed (the rest of the bedroom was dry) while the bedroom door was closed?

Wiping another drop of water off of his face and covering his head with a pillow, Querl vowed that Tam would never enter his apartment again.

* * *

_Last edited: Sunday 18th April._

_Last re-write I promise!_


	2. A Day Out With Tam

_Disclaimer: Taralei, Tam, Petro and the pink-haired girl are of my own creation, however the Legion of Superheroes and anything related to it are not. _

* * *

**Chapter Two - A Day Out With Tam**

"Hey, funny green kid. Funny green kid. Funny greed kid, whose real name escapes me, wake up!"

Said green kid awoke with a start and rolled straight out of bed, landing flat on his face at Tam's feet. After a few moments, he slowly raised his head and glared at Tam.

"What are you doing in my room?"

"Good morning to you too, funny green kid!" Tam replied cheerfully, as he pulled the other boy to his feet and shoved him towards his still-destroyed bathroom.

"My name is Querl, and your sarcasm is not appreciated this early in the morning. What time is it anyway?"

"6am."

"6am."

"Yes."

"_6am!_ What are you doing in my house, waking me up at 6am!

"Well obviously, I wanted to spend the day with my new best friend. Now get in that shower, you smell like burned vegetables." Tam replied, shoving the smaller boy towards the bathroom once more.

Querl sighed and entered the bathroom, being careful not to step on any sharp sink remnants, all the while grumbling something about vows not meaning anything anymore. Tam simply shrugged as he wandered into Querl's room and began digging through his personal belongings.

* * *

An hour and a half later found Tam, Querl and Tam's pet plant Frenzy, at the local mall. Tam had dragged Querl to the arcade and was currently playing _Zombie Mud_ while Querl lectured him on personal space. Apparently Tam found it difficult to understand that people generally don't like other people they've known for less than a day looking through their sock drawers.

"…it's disrespectful, rude, an invasion of privacy- are you even listening to me?"

"Die undead scum, _die!_"

"I suppose not."

Querl wandered around the arcade, trying to find something interesting to look at, while he pretended he didn't know Tam. It was a pretty small, square building with really old games from hundreds of years ago taking up one wall and newer virtual reality games like the one Tam was playing (and yelling at) taking up another. The front wall was entirely made of glass so people could see into the arcade and had a few pot plants near the door. The back wall had a door that Querl assumed led to a storage room, as well as a large counter where a blue-skinned woman was selling drinks to a few customers.

One particular customer caught Querl's eye. She was tiny, at least a head shorter than himself (and he was quite short), with bright pink hair pulled into pigtails. She wore a brown trench coat that was far too big for her and was talking to the blue-skinned woman in quick whispers. When she noticed Querl staring, she glared at him and stalked out of the arcade. Querl blinked and returned to where Tam was still playing his zombie game.

"I'm listening; I'm just trying to save the world from Zombie Mud at the same time." Tam said, eyes never leaving the screen.

Querl gave Tam an odd look, "I asked you that ten minutes ag- never mind." He sighed, "What exactly _is _Zombie Mud?"

"Duh, it's Zombie Mud."

Querl glanced down at Tam's 2ft walking flower, Frenzy to see if it had any clue what exactly was wrong with its owner, only to find it _growling. _Since when did plants growl? He turned around to see what it was growling at and came face to face with a very big and very angry arcade owner. Where on earth had he come from?

Querl poked Tam in the shoulder, "Uh, Tam?"

"Kinda busy! Hah! Your pathetic attempts do not faze me, I will be victorious! Ahahahaha!"

Querl forced a smile at the angry man next to him as Frenzy hid behind his legs. It seemed the plant was smarter than its owner.

"Uh, can I help you?"

"Yeah, you and your green-headed punk of a friend need to leave. Now."

"Why?" Tam asked distractedly.

The man grew even angrier if it was possible and gestured wildly at a nearby pinball machine, well what was left of it anyway. It had been smashed to pieces by something that appeared to be a large tree root. Querl stared in shock at the pinball machine; it had been fine less than two minutes ago.

It was then that Tam finished his game and turned around to see what all the commotion was about.

"Oops."

* * *

"I cannot believe you got us forcibly removed from the arcade." Querl said as he and Tam waited in line at a hot dog stand, "How did you manage to destroy that pinball machine anyway!"

"I dunno, just seems to happen to me sometimes." Tam replied shrugging. "Why do you care anyway? I thought you didn't like the arcade. More sauce please."

The hot dog seller glanced quizzically at Querl, who simply shook his head, before adding more sauce to Tam's hotdog. It was literally drowning in sauce now. Tam grinned at both Querl and the hot dog man's blank faces and took a big bite out of his hot dog, smearing sauce all over his face.

"That is not the point! I have never been thrown out of anywhere like that in my life!" Querl replied to Tam's earlier comment as he and Tam paid for their hot dogs and walked away.

"Wow, you're so boring." Tam commented as he searched for somewhere to sit down. "You must have lived a very boring life before moving here."

"I did not!" Querl argued, staring at the ground. "I had an amazing life!"

"Seriously?" Tam asked, as he hauled the spaced out Querl over to an empty table. "What happened?"

"Me…" Querl mumbled to himself, but Tam still heard.

The Florian wasn't sure how to respond to that and in the end he didn't have to; a laser fired straight over their heads, distracting them. Querl reacted quickly, pulling Tam to the ground as another shot blasted the table they had been sitting at.

Both boys climbed to their feet, looking around for the source of the shots. By now all the people at the mall were panicking and running around madly, Tam could barely see anything.

"There," Querl yelled over the noise, "The man in black near the teleporter. He has a level 2 laser; usually carried by common thieves. I'll go stop him, you get yourself to safety!"

Querl vaulted over the destroyed table they had been sitting at and swerved his way through the terrified crowd towards the man he'd pointed out. Tam frowned; if Querl thought he was going to wander off into trouble all by himself, he was very, very wrong.

* * *

Querl rolled and ducked behind a table as a shot fired right where he'd been standing. He grabbed a chair and blocked another shot with it, before tossing it to the side and hurling himself behind a pillar to avoid yet another shot.

'_I cannot keep this up,'_ Querl thought as he ducked a particularly well aimed shot; it missed his head by an inch. _'I need a weapon or something to fight back with.'_

He rolled away once again and glanced up to find he was hiding in a sporting shop. "Perfect."

He reached up and pulled a few baseballs down from the shelf above him and a cricket bat from a box to his left, before crawling out of the shop and back behind the pillar from earlier. He stuck his head out to find the thug that had been shooting at him. The man saw him and began firing once more. Querl quickly reached around the other side of the pillar and threw one of the baseballs with all his might. It hit the man in the elbow, causing the gun to fly out of his hand.

The man yelled something Querl couldn't quite make out and bent down to pick up his laser. Querl pegged another baseball at him, this one hitting the man in the head and knocking him unconscious, just as a shot from behind flew right over Querl's head. Hearing another yell, Querl turned to see where the shot had come from, only to find another man dressed in all black tied up with big green tree roots. He was yelling angrily at a grinning, green-haired boy not to far from him.

"I thought I told you to leave." Querl said, coming out from behind his pillar.

"Running away is for pansies." Tam replied, still grinning.

Querl walked over to his friend, looking around at the now deserted mall. He smiled, "Then by your definition, half of the inhabitants of New Metropolis are 'pansies'."

"I know! Did you see them all running? There were so many people; it took me like ten minutes to find you…"

The two friends were headed towards the exit, Tam running ahead and still rambling on excitedly, when Querl saw movement out of the corner of his eye. He stopped for a second to get a better look when the shot fired. Throwing himself to the ground, he realized too late that the person wasn't aiming at him.

"Tam!"

* * *

_I deleted the old chapter two as I felt it was unecessary and slowed the story down too much. I've posted a large chunk of it in my Deleted Scenes story for anyone interested. _

_Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, the next one should be up soon. _

_~Saani_


	3. Weisha and Lyle

_Disclaimer: Taralei, Tam, Petro and Weisha are of my own creation, however the Legion of Superheroes and anything related to it are not. _

* * *

**Chapter Three - Weisha and Lyle**

Weisha ducked a punch aimed at her head, and swung around to avoid a kick to the side. Blocking another kick, she briefly wondered where her teammates had gone. Weisha was a (relatively new) member of the Legion of Superheroes, a team of super-powered teenagers that kept the universe safe from monsters and criminals of all kinds. Today, that involved stopping four not-so-dangerous men from blowing the New Metropolis mall to smithereens.

The Legion had received a tip that four criminals they had been after for ages had come out of hiding and were planning something at the mall. She and two other Legionnaires had been sent to not only capture the four men but also to find out what they had planned to do to the mall and stop it. Weisha had spent most of the day undercover, asking around to see if anyone had seen anything suspicious, then around lunchtime the men had revealed themselves by firing lasers in the middle of the food court. It had been a very stupid move and extremely out of character for these so-called criminal masterminds, as was sticking around when the Legion evacuated the mall.

Unfortunately for Weisha, although these men were not the geniuses they had expected, they were all much bigger than her and trained fighters. She was tiny, only around 4ft. tall and very petite; hand-to-hand fights were not her forte.

She ducked another punch to her head only to receive a solid kick to the side. Her opponent laughed cruelly as she winced and clutched her side. Pulling herself together, Weisha dodged another kick and threw one of her own. She growled as the man brushed it off as though it were nothing, and then flipped herself backwards and up into the air. Using her opponent's momentary confusion, she flew over his head and headed towards the big open area that was the mall's food court, hoping to find either her teammates or something she could use to fight back.

Instead she found another of the criminals leaning over a large glass square built into the ground that allowed people to see the level below. The glass had been shattered and the man was aiming a laser through the hole at two teenage boys. One of the boys was of a short (not quite as short as her though), almost scrawny build and had green skin, blonde hair, and a familiar-looking pattern on his forehead. The other was tall and more athletic, with tanned skin and green hair and was waving his arms around as he talked, like an over-excited child.

The smaller of the boys stopped and upon noticing the gunman, dropped to the ground behind a fallen table. His friend however continued on towards the exit, still chattering away, completely clueless. He wasn't the only clueless one though; the criminal didn't notice as Weisha landed right behind him, instead he let out a totally fail evil laugh (fail in Weisha's opinion anyway) and fired at the boy.

"Tam!"

Rolling her eyes, Weisha reached out a hand and willed a force field to appear around the stupid-looking, green-haired boy just as the laser fired. The shot bounced off the pink bubble, burning a hole through a hot dog cart instead of the boy's head. Finally, the criminal noticed her.

"Don't you idiots ever learn?" Weisha grumbled as her shield reflected every shot the man fired, "My force fields are_ indestructible_."

"Oh, really?" The man smirked, not-so-subtly glancing at something behind her.

Hearing footsteps, Weisha extended her force field so it surrounded her entirely, and rolled her eyes as a heavy kick collided with it.

"Yeah, really." She turned her head to find the kicker was the man she'd flown away from earlier; "Oh, _you again_."

* * *

Querl jumped to his feet and dashed over to Tam, who seemed to have broken out of his stupor.

"Are you alright Tam?" Querl asked as he helped his 'friend' to his feet.

"Me! Who cares about me! We have to go save _her_!" Tam exclaimed, pointing up at the pink-haired girl that had saved him.

Querl took a quick survey of his surroundings. The open area he and Tam were in was a disaster; tables and chairs were scattered everywhere, as were burn marks from the lasers and glass from the ceiling. A couple of baseballs and the cricket bat he'd picked up earlier were lying on the ground nearby. The two men he and Tam had defeated were tied to a pillar by some large tree roots. The girl was still on the floor above them and appeared to be fighting (read: standing inside a force field and throwing insults) two grown men on her own. She was facing the hole with one man in front of her and the other behind; the stairs appeared to be to her left.

He turned to Tam; "Wait here."

"But-"

"Wait here and have your plants ready, I am going to go help the girl."

Querl opened his mouth to speak when Tam complained again and then shut it when Tam mentioned something about pink-haired angels; he didn't want to know. He picked up the cricket bat and a baseball and ran towards the nearby stairs.

* * *

Weisha was extremely irritated. She had two complete morons pounding on her force field, which was not only giving her a headache but was also preventing her from doing anything, which meant she had to wait for the teammate she'd contacted to arrive and help her. Weisha hated relying on other people almost as much as she hated people smacking at her force fields, but in this case she didn't really have a choice. She just hoped Lyle would hurry up.

Bored, she began throwing an alphabet of insults at her two attackers. She'd just reached the letter 'n' (nincompoop) when she noticed a person sneaking out from the stairs to hide behind a pillar to her left, and a chair fall over on its own to her right.

'Well Lyle's finally here.' She thought, 'But who's that on the-"

Her thoughts were interrupted by the man closest to the hole asking her what her insult for 'o' was. He never got his answer because at that moment a baseball went flying through the air and rolled to a stop next to him.

"Hah! You misse-" Attacker No.1's taunting was interrupted by a cricket bat flying through the air and bouncing off of Weisha's force field at just the right angle to knock him down the hole.

Attacker No.2 followed seconds later, thrown by an invisible force. Weisha (finally) dropped her force field just as the small blonde boy came out from behind his pillar. The two of them peered down the hole to see the green-haired boy tying the men up with massive tree roots he'd pulled out of seemingly nowhere.

"Who're your new friends?"

Both Weisha and the blonde-haired boy jumped slightly, and then Weisha turned around to glare at thin air.

"Do that one more time and I will punch you into next week, Lyle." She growled threateningly as her friend materialized in front of her, carrying her toolbox.

"That doesn't sound so bad actually; I'd get out of laundry duty."

"You're a jerk." She snapped, snatching her toolbox out of his hands.

"But you love me anyway." Lyle grinned, reaching up to fix the black headband that held his wavy brown hair out of his eyes, "But seriously, who are your new friends."

"They're not my friends, they're two idiots that didn't leave with everyone else and instead thought it would be fun to almost get themselves killed. I saved them and ended up stuck because of it." Weisha replied, glaring at the blonde boy the whole time.

"But this one saved you end the end," Lyle pointed at the blonde kid, "So you're even."

"I don't care." Weisha huffed and flew down to check on the criminals, leaving Lyle shaking his head at his friend's rudeness.

* * *

Tam sighed happily as he climbed into bed; he'd just had the best day ever. He'd spent the first half of the day hanging out with his new friend Querl, and the rest of it beating up bad guys and meeting two real life superheroes, one of them the lovely Weisha. It would have been three but for some reason Querl dragged him out of the mall so fast that Tam lost a shoe, the second he heard the name Shrinking Violet. Tam figured he had something against small people. Or purple. He'd have to ask him in the morning, after all, Querl had agreed ("Fine! I'll do whatever you want, just leave me alone!") to spend the whole day with Tam and Frenzy.

It was at that point that Tam realized he'd completely forgot about his little pet plant and had probably left it at the mall.

"Frenzy!"

* * *

_When I said the next chapter would be up 'soon', I totally meant 'in two months'. Sorry about the wait, hope you enjoy._

_~Saani_


	4. The Search

_Disclaimer: Taralei, Tam, Petro and Weisha are of my own creation, however the Legion of Superheroes and anything related to it are not. _

_

* * *

_Querl rubbed his temples and for the sixth time that morning, cursed himself for choosing this particular apartment building to move into. There were hundreds in this part of the city alone, why on earth had he picked this one? Maybe it was the universe's way of punishing him for what he'd done only a few weeks ago. Yes, that had to be it; it was the only way he could possibly deserve the mess sitting in his living room.

See, Tam had broken into Querl's apartment (again) at six-thirty that morning ("I thought I'd let you sleep in after yesterday!"), ranting about his pet plant. It had taken Querl twenty minutes to calm Tam down enough to learn that Frenzy was missing and had probably been left at the mall the day before. Querl liked the little flower a whole lot more than its owner, but not enough for him to care that early in the morning, so he'd tried to kick Tam out of his apartment. The green-haired boy had simply ignored Querl, planted himself on Querl's couch and then proceeded to spend the next few hours sobbing over a framed picture of Frenzy that he had pulled out of _nowhere_.

It was now nine am and Querl had had more than enough. He had planned to spend the day feeling sorry for himself and breathing sighs of relief that they'd left before Shrinking Violet had spotted him yesterday, not searching for a rather unintelligent plant with its even less intelligent owner. Wait, he knew Tam wasn't very bright, but why wasn't he out searching for the plant on his own?

When Querl asked him this, the boy stopped sobbing, looked up and said completely normally, "Oh, Pet broke our door again so I'm stuck watching the apartment."

Querl blinked, "Then what are you doing here?" He demanded, waving his arms around like a lunatic.

Tam was silent for a moment before he burst into (overly dramatic) tears, "I miss Frenzy!"

Querl had to hold himself back from strangling Tam; he was _so_ irritating! He took a deep breath, then grabbed Tam's sneakers off the coffee table (When had they gotten there anyway?), and threw them at him, "Hurry up and find someone to watch your," He glanced at the door Tam had broken on the way in, "_Our_ apartments, so we can go look for the stupid plant."

Tam's face brightened, he grinned and bolted out the door. Querl sighed; he was going to regret agreeing to help Tam.

* * *

An hour later found Tam and Querl hiding behind a hover car in the mall's parking lot, and Querl regretting agreeing to help Tam. Not only had the idiot gotten a crazy, two-headed, metal-eating woman to watch their apartments, he'd also neglected to mention that the mall was crawling with science police until they'd already gotten there. Apparently the criminals from the day before were claiming to have left three bombs hidden in the mall and only two had been found.

"It was all over the news this morning," Tam said cheerfully, ducking under the hover car as a police officer walked past.

'Then why didn't you say something before we came down here?" Querl hissed.

Tam shrugged, "I didn't think it had anything to do with us."

Querl once again held himself back from strangling Tam and stuck his head out from under the car to have a look around. Five teenagers had just arrived in the car park and were talking with the police officer in charge. Hoping they weren't who he thought they were, Querl stuck his head out further to get a better look. Sure enough, all five of them were Legionnaires.

Two of them were the Legionnaires he and Tam had run into the day before (Weisha and Lyle if he remembered correctly, he didn't know their code names though), but the other three were people he knew quite well. The one with black hair and a mostly purple costume was Cosmic Boy, the Legion's current leader. He was giving the others orders and arguing with an orange-haired boy in a blue and white costume with lightning bolts on it, Lightning Lad. A tiny girl with black hair and a black and purple costume appeared to be breaking up the fight.

"Hey, that's the girl you ran away from yesterday right?" Tam whispered, "I can't remember her name, but boy did you run fast!"

"Her code name's Shrinking Violet," Brainy replied, "And I did not run away from her, I…remembered I'd left the oven on." He said lamely.

"Whatever you say," Tam said, poking at the underside of the car.

"Stop that," Brainy grabbed Tam's sleeve, "Come on, let's go find Frenzy and get home before we get caught and before Mrs. Gordok eats my favourite spoon."

"You have a favourite spoon?" Tam smirked, as Querl dragged him through the parking lot, avoiding police officers, "That's so lame."

"Would you be quiet?" Querl growled, "We do _not_ want to get caught here."

"Eh, I've been caught in worse places," Tam whispered, pulling his sleeve out of Querl's grasp and following him through the mall's entrance.

"Where- no, I don't want to know," Querl shook his head, "Let's just get in there, get your stupid plant and go home."

Both boys ducked behind a pillar as the Legionnaires flew past. Querl heard Cosmic Boy order his teammates to split up and search before they all vanished out of sight. Not ready to face the Legion yet, Querl went to leave but found two police officers now guarding the entrance. He sighed; he was now stuck inside the building, with the exact people he was trying to avoid searching every inch of it. Just when he thought things couldn't get much worse, Tam pointed out that Querl no longer had a working oven as it was badly damaged during his kitchen fire, and began pestering him about Vi.

"No Tam I am not a crazed stalker, her pastry chef, her costume designer _or_ her father," Querl growled, pulling Tam inside the arcade and behind the pinball machine the plant-wielding idiot had destroyed, "What is _wrong_ with you?"

"You'd be surprised actually," Tam said, picking up a ball off the floor, "But I'll tell you if you tell me how you know her!"

"Just go look for your damn plant."

* * *

"This is so _boring!_" Weisha complained, sprawled out in a chair in a dark movie theatre. She and Lyle had been ordered to search the movie theatre, bowling alley and two arcades on the bottom floor of the mall, and Weisha had been less than impressed. It went the same as it always did, she insulted Cosmic Boy, he ignored her, and Lyle dragged her off to go do what they'd been told. She grinned, if it wasn't for Lyle she probably would have been kicked out of the Legion on her first day due to her attitude.

She changed the grin back to a scowl when Lyle stuck his head out from under a chair a few rows away, "If you'd help, not only would you have something to do, but this would go much faster."

"I did help, I searched my half of the cinema," Weisha replied, leaning back more, "It's not my fault you get stuck under the chairs and I don't. Besides, this whole search is pointless, me and Vi scanned the whole mall yesterday and didn't find-"

"-the so-called third bomb. Yes, we know." Lyle rolled his eyes and grinned, "Now shut up and come get me out, I'm stuck again."

It was Weisha's turn to roll her eyes as she jumped out of her seat and walked over to Lyle, bending down so she could get a good look at him in the dark. She blinked, "How the heck did you manage to get your foot stuck like that?"

"I have no idea, but it's not very comfortable, so stop staring and help!"

Weisha just smirked (he was_ so_ never going to live this down) and wrapped a force field around the chair that was trapping her friend. Her eyes and hands glowed as she willed the force field to squeeze the chair. After a few seconds, the chair smashed to pieces from the pressure, "Ta-dah." Weisha deposited the chair's remains a few feet away and pulled Lyle to his feet.

As Lyle stood up, he looked around at the seven other chairs that had met the same fate, "If you finish up here I'll go do the bowling alley by myself," He smiled hopefully.

"Fine," Weisha grumbled, "But you're doing the big arcade's bathrooms!" She called after him, as he was already running out of the theatre.

"Gross!" She heard him call back as she bent down to check under one of the few rows of seats that hadn't been searched yet.

With her small size, Weisha was able to crawl under the rows of chairs easily. Afterwards, she checked under a set of stairs and near the emergency exit. Once she'd deemed the place clear, she left the theatre, intending to search the smaller arcade next.

Upon entering the arcade, Weisha heard voices. Not the crazy kind from inside her head, the suspicious kind, from behind the broken pinball machine. She couldn't quite make out what they were saying but as she drew closer she clearly heard the word 'bomb'.

Suddenly the voices stopped and a head with green hair and a big grin popped up from behind the machine, "Hi."

She recognized him as the idiot from the day before, "What are you doing here again?" She growled, walking around the machine to see what he was up to.

Sitting on the ground and fiddling with what was quite clearly a bomb, was the idiot's friend. _'Busted'_ Weisha thought.

* * *

While searching the arcade for Frenzy, Querl had found the third bomb. The criminals had stashed it inside the smashed up pinball machine sometime after he and Tam had left the arcade yesterday. As he pulled out a few tools to disarm it, he heard footsteps entering the arcade. "Tam, distract whoever it is, while I disarm the bomb," He whispered.

Querl really should have known better. Tam stood up and upon realizing that it was his 'pink-haired angel', did nothing but grin stupidly and say 'hi'. Of course the girl got suspicious, and when she walked around the machine she found Querl fiddling with the bomb. He knew what he must look like; he just hoped she'd listen to reason.

"Move away from the bomb," She demanded, her eyes and hands glowing a faint pink.

"No, you've got to listen; I'm trying to disarm it!" Querl explained, still fiddling with the explosive.

She wrapped a force field around him, effectively cutting him off from his tools and the bomb, "Oh yeah? Give me one good reason why I should trust you." She said, glaring.

Querl was silent as flashbacks of the past few weeks flew through his head. The Legion had no reason to trust him at all, not after he'd almost destroyed them and the rest of the galaxy. He lowered his head, "You shouldn't. Go on, knock me out, I know that's what you're trying to do."

The girl frowned, confused, but that didn't stop her from doing as Querl said and tightening the force field, cutting off his air supply. He felt light-headed for a few seconds, before everything went black. The last thing he remembered before he lost consciousness was a yell and the force field around him vanishing.

* * *

_I know this chapter took ages to go up, but I promise the next one will be faster, I'm working on it right now. Till next time,_

_~Saani_


	5. The Fight

_Usual disclaimer applies._

* * *

**Chapter 5 - The fight**

Tam was an act first, think later kind of guy. He didn't understand why people spent ages thinking their decisions through before making them (if they ever made them at all), when they could simply do whatever it was they wanted to, defrost any limbs that get frozen in the process, and move on with their lives. That's what he did, and teachers, his family, and various innocent bystanders had spent years lecturing him over it. Now, he thought he finally understood why.

His 'pink-haired angel' had come out of nowhere and caught Querl fiddling with the bomb, and Tam had been so hung up on her that he didn't distract her when Querl had asked him too. She'd surrounded Querl with a force field, stopping his breathing, and Tam had panicked. Now, Angel lay outside the arcade, surrounded by glass shards, having been thrown through the window by the thick vine lying next to her. She was bleeding slightly from cuts on her arms and legs, and a nasty bruise was slowly forming on her forehead, but the thing that scared Tam the most was the look of pure fury painted on her face.

Tam took a few steps back and gulped, now deciding that dying his father's hair blue for calling him irresponsible all those years ago, _may_ have been unfair.

* * *

Lyle had just finished searching the large arcade's rather disgusting bathrooms when he heard a massive crash echo through the mall. He froze for a moment, tilting his head and listening, trying to figure out where exactly the sound was coming from. A second crash sounded, followed by a muffled yell, all coming from the direction of the other arcade. Lyle frowned; worried for his friend. Despite the number of people she'd scared into thinking otherwise, she wasn't anywhere near as tough as she acted, and had a very nasty habit of getting in over her head. Lyle was _still _learning this the hard way, even after years of knowing her.

Weisha had grown up on the streets; forced to steal supplies and fight off anyone that got in her way (or looked at her funny) just to survive. She'd been good at it though, her powers and rather extensive collection of insults and curses definitely coming in handy, and had managed to protect not only herself, but also a small group of homeless kids. Lyle, as the son of the local police chief, had heard constant stories about her and what she'd been up to; mostly by sneaking around the station and listening in on conversations he shouldn't have.

Unfortunately, it all eventually went to Weisha's head, and she took to stealing bigger and more dangerous things, and picking fights with people more powerful than her. When Lyle first met her face-to-face, she'd been arrested and was sitting in a holding cell, barely conscious, badly beaten up, and spouting not very nice things about the Science Police and the gang member she'd messed with.

She'd managed to escape (to this day, Lyle still had no idea _how_ exactly), and went back to quietly surviving for a few months. Until of course, her ego and temper got the better of her once more and she dove head-first into even more trouble than the first time.

She'd continued on like that for a few years, Lyle occasionally bailing her out of trouble when he was bored (or grounded and not very happy about said grounding), until Lyle had received an invitation to the Legion of Superheroes. In a moment of either genius or utter stupidity (he still wasn't entirely sure), he'd agreed, on the condition that they accept Weisha as well. He'd figured that if anyone could put Weisha's powers and volatile personality to good use, it was the Legion.

A minor fuss ("Who does he think he is, adding conditions to an _invitation_?!"), a temper tantrum that resulted in a major traffic incident ("You want me to join _what!?_"), another much larger fuss ("Did it ever occur to you to let us know she was a criminal _before she moved in_!?"), a kidnapping, and many bribes and violent sparring sessions later, and Weisha and Lyle were settling into life in the Legion and a comfortable friendship. Well, as comfortable as they could manage with Weisha still occasionally wreaking havoc as revenge for said kidnapping.

Lyle was snapped out of his thoughts by another crash and a string of words he was _not _going to repeat, and he took off toward the other arcade, fading to invisible mid-flight, and really hoping Weisha hadn't gotten herself into too much trouble this time. Lyle was extremely intelligent (a genius by human standards in fact) and a brilliant tactician, but he was worried that one day Weisha was going to drag them into something even _he _couldn't get them out of.

Fortunately his worries were unfounded this time. As he landed a short distance away from the arcade, he found that Weisha had simply gotten in yet another fight. Although, this was quite possibly her most ridiculous one yet.

She was all wrapped up in one of her force fields and hovering just a few feet above the ground, appearing to be trying to shake off a wave of dizziness. She apparently succeeded, as a moment later she threw herself, bubble included, through the remains of the arcade window and at her opponent. A second later, she came hurtling back out at high speed, bouncing off a few walls like some kind of giant bouncy ball, before landing back on the ground looking extremely sea-sick.

Nothing came out of the arcade to attack her while she was down though, so Lyle took the opportunity to sneak inside, all the while trying very hard to not burst out laughing at his friend. It would defeat the point of his invisibility and make him look bad after all.

As he entered the rather smashed-up building, Lyle was surprised to find Weisha's 'opponent' was the green-haired boy she'd _saved_ the day before. Tam, if he remembered correctly. He was standing in an awkward-looking defensive stance, surrounded by huge vines and tree roots that he'd pulled out of who-knows-where, a wildly panicked look plastered across his face. His friend from the day before, the green-skinned boy, lay unconscious a few feet behind him, the elusive third bomb at his side.

Convinced that Tam was just trying to defend himself and his friend and that Weisha wasn't in any real danger (unless you counted the lunch she'd had earlier or her ego), Lyle decided to just let them keep at it for now. Snatching Weisha's toolbox from where she'd carelessly left it lying on the ground, it turning invisible too when he made contact, he moved silently towards the downed boy. Of course he had to stop a moment later and plaster himself against the nearest wall when Weisha decided launching another unsuccessful attack and getting batted back out of the arcade by giant plants again was a good idea.

One invisible unimpressed face and a few not very nice mutterings about Weisha's intelligence later, and Lyle was at the unconscious boy's side.

* * *

Someone was shaking him, telling him it was time to get up now. Querl scrunched up his face and tried to smack the hand from his shoulder away, curling up into a ball and mumbling incoherently about Tam and vows and staying out of his sock-drawer. The shaking stopped a moment at that, as though the person behind it was confused, before starting up again.

"I'm not going anywhere near your sock-drawer, I promise," Came an amused voice, one Querl vaguely recognised, "But you need to get up. You picked a pretty lousy place for a nap."

As though helping to prove the voice's point, a loud crash, a few odd...bouncy sounds, and an angry female voice sounded out, echoing through Querl's aching head. He began to sit up, blinking and holding his head, all the while wondering what the sprock Tam had done to his apartment this time. Eventually everything slowly came into focus and Querl realised he was still in the arcade, what was left of it anyway, that Lyle person from the day before smiling down cheerfully at him.

Suddenly it clicked, and he remembered what he'd been trying to do before he lost consciousness. "The bomb!" He exclaimed, shoving the smiling face away from him roughly (what the heck did he have to be so _happy_ about anyway?), and glancing around wildly.

He regretted it almost instantly as his head pounded and swam in protest. Lyle, apparently not all that offended by having had a hand shoved in his face (which annoyed Querl even further; who the sprock was _that_ happy?), carefully straightened him up and dumped something large, metal, and very heavy into his lap.

He blinked at it dumbly, before realising it was a toolbox, and a well-stocked, well taken care of one at that. "You conscious enough to handle the bomb?" Lyle's voice came from behind him, higher up this time as he must have stood up.

Querl nodded weakly, pulling himself together and turning all his focus onto the task. The Legionnaire hung around a moment, watching over his shoulder as though making sure he was doing it right. Querl grit his teeth, refraining himself from grabbing the other boy's ankle and knocking him over out of sheer annoyance. Stupid new Legionnaires.

If Lyle noticed his irritability, he didn't comment on it, instead taking a few steps away and calling cheerfully; "Okay, you handle that and I'll go break up the fight."

At the word fight, Querl looked up, now realising where all the background noise had been coming from. He watched a moment as Tam's plants smacked a bright pink ball flying out of the arcade, causing it to ricochet off a number of walls and a large stone pillar. He smirked lightly when he figured out that the pink ball was likely that bratty little pink-haired Legionnaire, and the smirk widened even more when Lyle got knocked over by one of Tam's more wildly flaying plants.

Looking back down at the wires he was working on disconnecting, Querl sighed. He knew it wasn't right or fair to dislike them simply because they were Legionnaires and he wasn't, but he couldn't help it. He wanted nothing more than to go back, enjoy his old life once more, but he couldn't bring himself to face them, especially not now that they'd replaced him with these two morons and were probably all happily forgetting about him.

Querl pushed away those thoughts for now and disconnected the last wire, shoving the tools back into the toolbox. He glanced up to find Tam had let his plants drop and was sitting tiredly amongst them. Outside the arcade, Lyle appeared to be trying to convince Weisha to come out of her force field, and in return, she was sitting inside pouting like a child. Okay, perhaps only Lyle was his replacement, there's no way anyone considered _her _a worthwhile Legionnaire.

As Querl struggled awkwardly to his feet, toolbox in hand, Tam's head whipped around, eyes widening in surprise. "Querl! You're okay!" He exclaimed excitedly, all signs of exhaustion gone as he hurried over to hug him.

Querl awkwardly patted the other boy on the back before shoving him away lightly, a slight smile on his face as he let the other boy babble away about what had happened and how worried he'd been. That thought made Querl feel a little bit better, brushed away some of the anger and irrational dislike; he had someone that cared about him and considered him a friend. Even if it was Tam and made _no sense_ what-so-ever.

Of course that warm fuzzy feeling flew right out what remained of the window when he heard Cosmic Boy's voice echo somewhere outside the arcade, and was quickly replaced with panic. He couldn't face them, he didn't want to face them, and if he was caught here, he was going to have to face them.

His drastic change in attitude must have been obvious, because all three people with him stopped and stared. Weisha tossed out a comment about 'Cosmic Dork's voice causing her brain cell loss too' while Tam simply waved a hand in front of his face and asked if he was okay. Lyle simply watched him, a curious look on his face. Then he snapped into action.

"Hey Weish? Go tell Cos about that brain cell thing okay?" He asked his friend, taking her toolbox from Querl and dumping it in her hands, "Oh and whatever you were saying about his new haircut this morning."

Weisha scowled, giving her friend a suspicious look. After a moment she shrugged and took off flying to do what she'd been asked, if her yell of '_hey blockhead_' was any indication. Ignoring the dreamy look plastered across Tam's face as he stared off after her, Querl turned his own suspicious look on Lyle.

"What're you doing?" He asked quietly.

"Getting you out of here," Came the Legionnaire's cheerful reply, as though it was the most obvious thing ever.

Querl opened his mouth to push the point more, but was interrupted by Lyle grabbing his and Tam's wrists and yanking them towards the exit, the one with the security guards Querl had spotted earlier. When he again opened his mouth to voice his concerns, Lyle simply winked at him, and all of a sudden, all three faded from sight.

Querl didn't have time to marvel at how odd it was not being able to see himself, or even wonder how exactly Lyle's powers worked, as Tam took it upon himself to _completely and utterly_ miss the point of invisibility and began babbling about how amazing it was. _Loudly_.

Sighing, Querl just smacked a hand over where Tam's mouth should've been and was relieved to hear the chatter stop abruptly. He nudged Lyle to move along faster, not sure how long Tam could actually stay quiet for. Lyle must've been thinking the same thing as he pulled the both past the security guards, outside, and into the chaotic crowds surrounding the parking lot all in about a minute.

Once in a spot where they wouldn't be noticed, Querl felt the hand around his wrist let go and all three of them turned visible once more.

After a quick odd glance at Tam, as though attempting to estimate just how low his IQ was, Lyle turned his cheery smile back on Querl. "You guys fine to get home from here?"

Querl nodded, making a disgusted face and yanking his hand away from Tam's mouth when he licked it. "Yes. Although whether Tam here makes it home in one piece or not is debatable," He grumbled, scowling at Tam's smug expression.

Lyle chuckled and shook his head before giving them both mock stern looks, "I was happy to help you guys out today, but don't make this a habit okay?" He smiled knowingly at Querl, "Especially you. Getting involved in the same incidents as the Legion isn't a very good way to hide from them."

Querl stared down at his feet, the usual guilt and homesickness he felt whenever he thought of his former teammates flooding though him. It was then quickly replaced by anger, and deciding he'd had more than enough of Lyle _for the rest of his life_, Querl grabbed Tam's elbow and began to head in the direction of their apartment building. That didn't stop him from missing the softly spoken words Lyle called after him.

"I don't know why you're hiding though, they miss you."

The anger bubbled up even more and Querl whirled around to tell Lyle just where he could shove his opinions and to mind his own business, only to find the Legionnaire was nowhere to be seen. Scowling, Querl turned back to stomp after Tam, who simply gave him a bright smile and began babbling away.

They were standing just outside their apartment building when the chatter suddenly stopped once more. Querl glanced at his friend in confusion as the green-haired boy gripped his hair and stared wide-eyed.

"Querl! We forgot Frenzy!"

* * *

Again_. The poor plant's gonna get a complex at this rate. Next chapter will be much lighter and sillier (that's right, it _can_ get sillier!) and focus on what Frenzy's been up to lately._

_I know I haven't updated this in like forever, I had so much trouble with this chapter and just kept dropping it, until eventually I had no motivation for this story at all. It was actually on hiatus, but I recieved a review this morning that kinda kicked me into gear and encouraged me to have another look at it. Not my best work, but it's something. Next chapter will be up whenever I manage it. Hopefully soon. Ish._

_Big thanks to anyone that's crazy enough to still be reading this!_

_~Saani_


	6. Frenzy

**Chapter 6 - Frenzy**

Frenzy lightly hummed a tune to itself as it swayed back and forth in time with the movement of the box it was trapped in, all the while being careful not to touch anything other than the slightly greasy cloth it was curled up on. The box was full of strange metal objects, a number of which were very sharp and pointy, as the poor little plant had figured out the hard way, somewhere around the second hour of box-entrapment. The flower rubbed its damaged petal gingerly at the memory and did its very best to scowl in the evil object's general direction, despite the pitch-black darkness and Frenzy's lack of eyebrows.

Thinking about the darkness made Frenzy want to try and glare at that too. The little plant was solar-powered, it thrived during sunlight and fell asleep in darkness, so being trapped in perpetual darkness for hours on end left it rather sleepy, confused, and more than a little cranky.

Said crankiness increased when the box was suddenly jostled roughly, not for the first time that day, and the little plant was thrown into the opposite side of the box with an indignant squeak. The box wasn't all that large, in fact it was approximately three curled-up Frenzies big by the plant's estimate (and Frenzy only stood up to the average human's knee, petals and all), so the collision didn't really bother it. Whatever the horrible sticky stuff it landed on was a completely different story.

It was a crumpled up ball of some kind of plastic strip, only sticky on one side, and it grossed Frenzy out to no end. It shook its foot-root frantically in an effort to get rid of it, reaching with its arm roots to yank it off when that failed. This of course ended with the Horrible Ball of Ew stuck to both of those instead. Chirping a string of not very nice comments on both the unknown owner of the box and humanoid species in general, Frenzy finally managed to plaster the ball onto the side of the box.

Shuddering at the remaining sticky feeling on its limbs, the little plant cast yet another blind glare as it tip-toed (or at least as close a resemblance to tip-toeing as one can manage without actual toes) across the Evil Metal Pointies and curled back up on its grease cloth.

Sighing, the little plant regretted ever deciding to climb into this stupid box, even if had been to take cover.

* * *

It'd all started when Master Tam and his weird-looking friend had decided to leave the arcade for some fertaliser- no wait, what did the humanoids call it? Food? Yeah, sounded about right. Anyway, they'd left, and while following after them, Frenzy had been distracted by this _gorgeous _pot-plant. While it hadn't been interested in Frenzy's advances _at all _(what a snob!), it had managed to occupy the little flower long enough for Master Tam to vanish from sight.

Rather used to being ditched or forgotten by Master, Frenzy had sighed squeakily and taken off through the crowds, carefully trying to avoid being stepped on as it searched for a familiar-looking pair of shoes. It hadn't had any luck though, and all of a sudden disaster broke out.

Frenzy shook its head as it remembered all the horrible noises; the loud clatter of footsteps and the odd pew-pew sounds (just like in those games Frenzy played on the Moving Picture Box with Master Tam) had been bad enough, but the horrible screaming and yelling from the humanoids? They'd frightened the little flower badly and it'd hidden underneath a table until they all finally left and the noises died down.

When Frenzy had stuck its petaled head out from under the table it had found the whole place to be deserted, other than a small humanoid in a bubble and two bigger humanoids trying to break said bubble. Frenzy had stared for a moment, not really sure what to make of them, before deciding that it couldn't hurt to go ask them if they'd seen his Master. The little plant had just raised its roots and began squeaking to get their attention when a chair shifted _on its own_ nearby and some kind of rectangular wooden object came flying through the air.

Scared out of its tiny mind, Frenzy had panicked and dove for cover. Unfortunately said cover had turned out to be the Evil Death Box and Frenzy had been stuck in the darkness ever since.

Well, that wasn't entirely true. Not all that long ago, the box had opened and Master Tam's weird-looking friend had looked inside, somehow _completely missing _the plant. To be fair, the humanoid had looked utterly terrible; his eyes unfocused as he swayed side to side slightly, and there was all this crashing and yelling coming from outside. Frenzy had hesitated, unsure if it wanted to know what was going on or not. The decision was taken out of Frenzy's roots though, as Weird-Looking had taken out some of the Evil Metal Pointies and promptly closed the box once more. It had opened a final time a few minutes later, but only long enough to dump the Pointies back inside, on poor Frenzy's head no less.

Since _then_, Frenzy had been stuck in the darkness, the only sign of the outside world being the occasional irritating jostling of the box. Speaking of which...

Frenzy was startled by the box slamming down hard enough to open the lid slightly, and both a stream of light and the sound of retreating footsteps filtered through. Shoving the Pointy that had landed on its root off, Frenzy cast a quick glare at the Horrible Ball of Eww to make sure it had stayed where it had left it. Satisfied, the little flower picked itself up and lifted its head to peek through the opening, finding it had absolutely no idea where it was.

It appeared to be indoors at the very least, some kind of large room full of metal furniture and humming machines. Frenzy wasn't all that fond of machines, except of course the Moving Picture Box and that wondrous thing Master Tam called an Elevator, so it eyed them warily a moment before turning its head towards what appeared to be the door. It had been carelessly left open, probably by the horrible owner (and jostler) of the Death Box.

Cautiously, Frenzy climbed up and out of the box, slipping once or twice and landing in a heap on the cold, hard, much further down than it thought, floor; the Horrible Ball of Eww and a pair of Pointies stuck to its petals. About five minutes and a temper tantrum later, the little plant hobbled towards the door, the objects still stuck to its head.

Waddling out the door, Frenzy found itself in a large, empty hallway. After looking both ways, the flower decided to head in the direction it thought it could hear voices coming from, figuring its day could not possibly get any worse.

Apparently plants can't get away with tempting fate any more than anyone else, as the moment Frenzy wandered into a massive, tiled room, filled with more metal furniture and far too many humanoids, it was surprised by one of said humanoids coming out of _nowhere_.

"Aww, look at you, you're so cute!"

The voice was higher pitched than Master Tam's, probably 'female' like Mistress Tara, and ended in an odd snorting sound that quite frankly weirded Frenzy out a little. The accompanying body was small and mostly green and black and was _floating in the air_ as she hugged Frenzy to her.

"What happened to you? Poor little guy," The humanoid cooed, carefully prying the Horrible Ball of Eww and its evil Pointy friends from Frenzy's petals, before looking them over and muttering something about a 'Weisha'.

There was something else after that, but the little plant didn't catch it, nor care, as its savior placed the objects down on a nearby surface and proceeded to scratch it behind the petals in the nicest way. All thoughts of the Evil Death Box and its pointy and sticky minions flew out the figurative window as Frenzy was carried across the room to a group of humanoids and fussed over for the next few hours.

* * *

Lyle raised an invisible eyebrow as he wandered into the cafeteria and found almost half the Legionnaires currently on base crowded around a table. Spotting Timberwolf slightly off to the side, his orange costume and dark fur causing him to stand out, Lyle snuck up behind him, entirely just because he could.

"What are they doing?"

The wolf-like Legionnaire jumped in his chair slightly and growled as a grinning Lyle materialised in front of him. "Would you stop doing that!?"

Pretending to think a moment, Lyle flopped into a nearby chair; "Hmm, nope. What happened to that fantastic sense of smell huh?" He teased, ignoring the glare and what was probably supposed to be intimidating claw-sharpening.

"It was sleeping," Timberwolf, Brinn, replied grumpily, "Until Tinya barged in and told me I just had to see Vi's 'cute little pet'."

Glancing over at the group, Lyle found both female Legionnaires in the middle, apparently poking gently at something '_soooo cuuute'_, and chattering away. "...Pet?"

"It's some weird flower thing," Brinn replied moodily, getting to his feet and attempting to sneak away without anyone noticing.

"Flower?" Lyle repeated, tilting his head to think a moment. Florian's were known for keeping over-sized plants as pets, and that weird kid with Brainiac 5 had definitely been from that planet. "I wonder..."

Jumping to his feet, Lyle waved a hand in Brinn's retreating direction and called out, "Brinn's running away guys!" Not that anyone (besides maybe Tinya, but that was so not Lyle's business) really cared, but it was enough of a distraction for him to reach past them and pluck the plant off the table.

Ignoring the plant's not-very-impressed look (which was rather amazing considering it only had one eye to perform facial expressions with), and the chorus of 'heys!' from his fellow Legionnaires, Lyle flew up and out of the cafeteria.

"Sorry guys! But I think I know who owns this little guy!" He called out behind him, before glancing down at the struggling flower in his arms that very clearly wanted to go back to all the attention. "Hey, stop that. I'm trying to take you back to...what's his name? Tam?"

The creature's head shot up at that and the struggles stopped as it proceeded to squeak loudly and excitedly in response.

"Guess so then," The Legionnaire chuckled, exiting the building and taking off into the sky. "Now, I have a general idea where he might live, which is totally going to piss of Brainiac 5 and is hilarious, but I'm really hoping you at least know what your house looks like..."

* * *

_Holy crap, a chapter! I totally have a legitimate excuse this time, my laptop's been dead since March, and I lost the work I did on this chapter and totally could not be bothered re-writing it. Even if it's ridiculously short. Frenzy proved to be much harder than I thought it would be. Anyway, my laptop magically fixed itself after a few months, baffling everyone, and I got my work back. So here it is. Next chapter will be up...eh, whenever I get around to it. Or someone jabs me hard enough with a stick._

_Thanks to anyone still reading this,_

_~Saani_


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